Nice garden tick

I was just getting in the car early afternoon when noisy waders were heard coming up the valley from Hebden. I looked and they were far away enough for me to get my binoculars, and be out again in time. Two black tailed godwits flew towards me, then veered north heading over the hill towards Blackshaw Head.

Ogden

Reservoir and Back Lane area
25 L B B Gulls  SW
3 Swifts
1 Curlew still with juvs
Pair of Lapwing
Plenty Swallows  about and 3 House Martins SW
Plenty mipits, Linnets and Goldfinch
Nothing doing on the res'r but a Dipper and Grey Wags in Ogden Clough

Illegal hunting in Malta

There is a programme on Radio 4 tomorrow at 11.00am about the illegal hunting of birds in Malta. It's part of the regular Nature series. No doubt it will be available later on iPlayer.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01l7sff

RINGSTONE / EGP

Ringstone this morning

Cormorant 3
G C Grebe 3
Swallow   4
B H Gulls C50

EGP this morning

1 juvenile Dipper by Cromwell lock
1 Green Woodpecker top meadow
1 G S woodpecker
Nothing on the river ,lake or lagoons.

Mixenden/Ogden

Lots of Swallows, a few House Martins and Swifts in the valley this afternoon. The highlight though was a male Stonechat with 3 newly fledged juveniles. Ilook forward to seeing Brian's photos!

Ringstone

I called there first thing this morning and later this evening. This morning there were around 150 B H Gulls and an od Common Gull but no sign of the Med. later on there were just a dozen or so Black heads and only 1 Common.
3 G C Grebes
1 Cormorant
Pair of Tufted Duck
5 Golden Plover
c100 Lapwing

Ringstone

Adult Med Gull at 18:30 tonight in non breeding plumage so not the same bird as earlier, watched for around 15 mins on the res before something sent everything up & the majority of gulls left. looked through a group of  around 100 BHG remaining but couldn't relocate it. Also 2 Golden plover on North field 3 Cormorants 3 Great crested Grebes 3 Tufted Duck & a single Sand Martin through.

Ogden and Fly Flatts

I called in at Ogden to see if the 5 Shoveler had stayed overnight, but as expected they had moved on. Not a lot else found there other than 1 Grey Heron.

Fly Flatts
2 Red-legged Partidge
1 Red Grouse
1 Golden Plover
6 Swift SW
1 Swallow SW
1 Unringed Twite
1 juv Wheatear
2 Oystercatchers
4 Kestrels
Usual mipits and Canada's

Withens Head
3 juv Wheatears and 1 adult
1 Little Owl
1 Lapwing
1 Kestrel
Meadow Pipits feeding young

OGDEN

                                       

 One of five Shovelers found by Nk at Ogden today.

Wrens' nest at Blake Dean 25.7.12

I was sketching the tree (from a different angle) when I realised the adults were carrying food nearby. Took me two searches to find the nest, which is under the big horizontal branch.
There were at least 2 young, eyes open, still downy and coming to the entrance for food.
Other birds at Blake Dean:
Treecreeper
Swallows (one nest with young on the gable end of the old chapel)
Green Woodpecker
Whinchat male
Kestrel
Meadow Pipits
Pied Wagtail
Goldfinches
Blackbird

Stuff

Mytholmroyd garden this pm

4 blackcaps-1m, 1f & 2 juvs  all eating redcurrants. They have been visiting for a few days.
8 siskins on feeders-2m, 3f & 3 juvs. Lots of visits from siskins in the last few weeks, as others have experienced. I don't usually get them until August.
2 chiffchaffs.
Plus usual species.

Ringstone Res'r

A good find by Andy this morning with 5 (unringed) Black-tailed Godwits there around 11.0 am and they were still there in the north field at 14.20 from Niall - but not had an update from since then.

Crimsworth Dean

This afternoon, with noisy kids in tow, managed to find a juv' spotted flycatcher. Numerous nuthatch were the only other thing I could pick out above the din.

Cold Edge

Early afternoon. Lots of Linnets and Meadow Pipits about.
1 juv Curlew
Pair of Lapwing still with young
3 juv Wheatear opposite the wind farm car park
1 Little Owl
1 Tufted Duck
2 Kestrels
2 Oystercatchers
c60 B h Gulls
1 L B B Gull
1 full s p Little Grebe
1 Grey Heron
1 Willow Warbler
1 male Twite along Cold Edge Road
Not many Swallows about and no Swifts moving either

Fly Flatts

Late morning. Still no shoreline so not much good for waders.
1 juv Wheatear
2 unringed Twite at the feeding station
1 distant Kestrel
3 Oystercatchers
Not a lot else other than the usual mipits and Canada's with 12 Greylag Geese
No Swifts up there today

Gulls - Jay House Lane

Following on from DJ's find of the med gull at ringstone there was a huge number of gulls at Jay House Lane this morning opposite the first farm buildings as you come up JHL out of the woods in field to right.

Close enough to scope but I dont have one. Plenty of LBBGs, few GBBGs, common gulls & BH gulls. Only had 5 mins as I was already late for work with the m62 closure, worth checking if anyone is local & has a scope.

Ringstone

Poor shots, I know (digiscoped from the road) but this Mediterranean Gull (centre of shots) was in the fields behind the hide this afternoon at 1.30 pm and was there till at least 2 pm though model aircraft flying over the back field put the gulls up and it went with other B H Gulls into the north field where I lost track of it.
It is probably still there but may have moved to other fields just down the road on the right towards Barkisland where farmers are collecting silage and the fields were full of B H Gulls etc.
It looked like a full adult but just starting to loose the black hood at the front and on the photo's looks 'masked'
I hope someone else can find it as well !

5 G C Grebes
2 Cormorant
1 L B B Gull
c60 Common Gulls
c1,000 B H Gulls
c60 Lapwings

Ringstone

Interesting info from Sean Gray on the colour ringed Black tailed Godwit last Saturday (July 21st). It was ringed in Iceland ! Further details in due course.
Many thanks Sean, always good to hear from you.

Ringstone Res'r

Spent 2 hours or so yesterday evening at Ringstone with Nick D and John B mainly checking through 3,000+ gulls feeding in the surrounding fields following the farmers silage collection activities. The majority of gulls were Black-headed including a number of juveniles, with a lesser amount of Common Gulls, mostly adults (150+?) and c40 or more Lesser-Black backed Gulls. I have never seen this number of gulls in Calderdale since the landfill sites closed at Shroggs and Blackley!
With this amount of gulls there was always a chance of a Med or Herring or Yellow-legged Gull but we were not able to find anything unusual, though one 1st summer large gull that didn't look quite right for L B B G did not give good enough views to question it's possible i d .
The gulls should be around for a few days so it's well worth a check through with the scope, thought the farming operations look to be nearly completed.

2 Curlew >W
2 Common Sandpipers
c114 Lapwing
5 G C Grebes (including 1 juvenile)
Pair of Tufted Duck
1 f Peregrine over high put all the gulls up for a while
2 Pied Wagtails >W
1 Meadow Pipit
1 Kestrel
Some Linnets and quite a few Swallows around

Lee Mount

Hobby tonight 8.45 pm over Lee Mount had 2 passes at c40 Swifts feeding over trees at back of Shroggs Park. I had been out for nearly an hour watching the Swifts overhead and thinking, not long now and they will be on their way till next summer - such amazing birds, when the Hobby shot over scattering the Swifts in all directions. They came back together before scattering again on the second pass!
First ever Hobby over the house since 1974!!